Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Pass to the left of the bus

When passing a bus or other large vehicle, don't try to squeeze by on the right. You'll get squished. It's a good idea to move far enough left so the driver can see you in his mirror and so there's a little bit of escape room if that bus starts to move.

I'm keeping up with traffic on El Camino Real in this video, but passing to the left also works for slow cycling when traffic conditions warrant. Signal, check back and merge over when it's safe.

If I'm following a bus and I know the bus is just pulling over for a passenger pickup, I've been known to hop up on the sidewalk and pass on the right. The problem with this is that if the bus is stopping for passenger pickup or dropoff, that means there are people on the sidewalk (*doh!*)

In the Netherlands Denmark, cyclists may not leave the bike lane and are required to stop behind the bus. You have that option here in the United States, of course, though in my opinion getting trapped behind a diesel bus is the pits, and we have tighter particulate emissions controls in the USA than Europe (it's the reason diesel cars are more popular in Europe).